Home Match Day Thread 16/4/24 Oxford United v Lincoln City

Foley said:

I was in line and it looked to me as if the foul clearly continued into the area?

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It 100% did!

Looking back on their penalty, and considering the rules posted above, that's a match where the referee has quite literally decided the outcome. I can see why Des was annoyed.

Doesn't change the fact we weren't good enough, but hopefully we can use the above to spur us on.

lucky71 said:

Long,Stevens & Josh Mc outstanding again tonight,unfortunately we were a bit toothless tonight & imo taking Goodrham off backfired,his work rate & offensive play was excellent,the subs just didn’t do it for me tonight,onto Friday.

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I agree about the subs and Goodrham, Rodrigues should have gone off. However, Josh MC was good in the first half but struggled in the second.

Oxford84 said:

Lincoln had one gameplan!

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They didn’t need a second in all fairness. Plan A was just the ticket.

I suspect if we’d found the first goal or an equaliser they’d have changed things around. They had to win that game and found the way to do it from the off. This ‘do plan A better’ thing is a cute arrogance to have when you’ve got world class players capable of anything but it should shock nobody that in league one, you need a plan B. You hope you don’t need it, but when you do it’s there. I was disappointed to see us change so little.

Lincoln were a horrible watch but they’re obviously very sure of themselves defensively and only someone very stupid would come to the Kassam in the form we’re in and swing haymakers at us. It was rancid to watch and we could’ve done with a ref that didn’t look like it was his first day in the job in awe or footballers, but they were exceptionally well drilled, played the smart game and saw out the second half alarmingly comfortably.

unification said:

That’s not the law of the game though. The foul started outside the area so was rightly given as a free kick.

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Not so - ref can play advantage if the player still has control of the ball while being fouled. If the fouling persists, the offence is given at the point that the player can no longer play the ball.

unification said:

That’s not the law of the game though. The foul started outside the area so was rightly given as a free kick.

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BicesterU said:

Our set pieces were poor.

Lincoln were set up to nullify our wingers and it worked.

McEachran had some good moments, but took a while to get in to the game, and tjem tired quickly.

We should’ve had it won in the first half.

Browne was outstanding when he came on.

Intrigued to see what our midfield three will look like next year.

Had a little chuckle to myself at the ‘get it forward!’ brigade, who quickly turned in to the ‘for f*ck sake!’ brigade when the kind of ambitious/hopeful forward pass they seemed to be advocating was cut out or didn’t find it’s target.

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I agree about the get it forward brigade. They soon moaned when it did go forward and didn’t get us anywhere. Lincoln’s plan was to always have several players around our wingers and really hassled them. Also their number 18 closed Greg down immediately throughout the game.

I just can't see us not getting play-offs. Still in our hands.

I think Stevenage will do a Lincoln - hope to go 1 up then just hold the lead. Score 1st and we win.

We'll beat Exeter fairly easily.

billyturleyscurlywurly said:

FT: Oxford 3-0 Lincoln

9.30pm tonight, crack a beer open and relax.

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Nice cuppa tea, Billy?

The worst part of yesterday evening, all aside from the result, was the lack of entertainment. A result of the spoiling tactics of the opposition, the lack of an authoritive official who, it is clear, did not interpret the rules of the game to the correct levels, and our own inability to play around such obstacles.
We had several set piece opportunities and squandered all of them. Corners, free kicks all need work. If playing with skill is being thwarted by constant fouling, bullying and play acting then we need to be that bit cuter and have a few set piece routines to take advantage of any chance of scoring.
To come away with nothing from the game knowing that at least a point would have served us well is just not on. Everybody knows that the officials at this level are fallible (some are downright useless) so any team, such as Lincoln, can take advantage, and they did.
Come Friday we'll have another side who will seek to take advantage in anyway possible. They have no chance of making the play-offs and really have little left but their own pride and, possibly, the chance to get some revenge for us having beaten them at their place, to play for.
It won't be pretty but, let's get the job done anyway we can.

Dubai Yellow said:

100% agree about RR, had a shocker last night. Continually giving the ball away and poor decision making, how he stayed on for 85mins I’ll never know.

Dont think we deserved to lose. Lincoln were robust, ugly and did what they had to do.

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I thought Lincoln were plain dirty. As bad as the ref was he did dish out 7 yellows and a red There is problem with the laws of the game that allows teams to commit professional foul after professional foul with impunity. I'd prefer a rule change that penalised teams who go over fixed quotas with points deductions. Say 6 or more professional fouls in a game equals -1 points or more than 4 professional fouls against a single player in a game equals -1 point. Scourge of the game.

It was quite a strange game to watch. We created some semi-ok chances first half. The game was a bit more open at 0-0 & although it wasn’t our free flowing best we had a couple of chances, most notably Goodrham and Harris.

Obviously the goal so early in the second half killed us, going behind in a tight game was always going to make it difficult. For me it’s not a penalty, I think there is a clear foot on the ball in that tackle then the player goes over him, but then had it not been given their striker might put it in anyway. Take it on the chin I guess.

Lincoln are a good side defensively and you could see that after the goal. They were very well organised and their keeper claimed anything near to him. Their tactics were obviously very unpleasant to watch. Lincoln fans will probably say it did the job and got them the points, but any fan having that done against them is going to leave the game with a slightly sour taste. Ultimately though we couldn’t find a way to break that down, so that’s something to work on.

Without even talking about the penalty, I thought the ref was poor from the off. He booked 2 Lincoln players in the first 20 minutes for their first foul & that set the precedent from then on. I appreciate he can’t stop Lincoln fouling & can just caution players who do, but I felt his general lack of urgency played in to their hands. Clearly they were trying to kill the game, as a ref the only thing you can do is to try and keep the game moving. He took so long to deal with stuff, had words with lots of players, took an age to get setup for the game to restart after a foul. If you looked at who wasted the most time it was him, which is disappointing & just killed the spectacle.

Anyway, we’re still in the driving seat. Win on Friday and we’re one game away from sealing it. Keep the faith!

An Exeter who are carefree and in good form themselves - piece of cake clearly

After last night's game, I can conclude I hate Lincoln and their fans. I am looking forward to them bottling it against Cheltenham at the weekend after we beat Stevenage.

Mugged. We were mugged - didn’t take our chances when we were on top, conceded a goal early in the 2nd half and then weren’t good enough to break down an obdurate, organised defence.

However, we should take the opportunity to welcome Michael Skubala to the dark arts hall of fame, joining a long list including Graham Westley, Steve Evans and Gareth Ainsworth.

All the old classics - haranguing the 4th official for 90+ minutes, along with his assistant, feigning injuries, water breaks, trying to get the opposition booked, time wasting, outright thuggery - all the time old tricks.

Joey said:

This is taken from the FA website under laws of the game, I think it used to be the case it was a free kick but was changed a little while back.

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Edit - I'm not 100% sure the foul did continue into the box mind, hard to tell on the replay on a phone but he may well have let go before then.

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Yep, he messed that one up completely. To make it worse pretty sure he actually gave a subtle 'advantage' gesture at the first foul outside the box, let play continue so Harris could wriggle away then pulled it back when he was finally pulled down in the area. He struggled badly all night. He got their pen wrong but can see why it was given and another reminder that Rubin should be strongly discouraged from doing anything in and around our own penalty area. His fetish for dropped balls was quite funny though.

Overall it was a decent enough performance but with every player 10% off it against a Lincoln team who gave absolutely everything they had in every area, including mind games and the ugly stuff. I'm going to try and find a feed of their game against similarly desperate Cheltenham on Saturday - that should be tasty.

To beat Stevenage and Exeter for playoffs is a challenge our squad should be relishing. It's one of those where failure would mean we really don't deserve a spot, especially given the financial gap between the teams. Success would mean going into them on a high and with the best form. Can't wait for Friday

We had the better chances first half, could have been two up. The cross from Dale (was exceptional) for Harris to caress in, was a really disappointing miss. Tyler's exquisite turn on the edge of the box and subsequent pass into the GK's hands another. You have to take your chances.

They scored a penalty and didn't really create much else. That said, second half, we were slow and whilst I saw why we moved the ball about to create space, move the opposition, we didn't really have the energy to go forward until CAM joined in.

McGuane, for the five minutes he was on, should never play for us again.

I thought first half, Lincoln had a very dominant spell of pressure and looked a good, organised side.

The referee. Other than allowing the ball to be in play for about 1m 27 seconds of the entire 7 minute injury time he played, wasn't horrendous. He booked 7/8 of their players and sent one off.

Felt we all turned up expecting to finish the job. I think we should beat Stevenage but that's where my season predictions will end. God knows who will secure a playoff spot.

Happy to be corrected on Law 12. I didn’t realise it had changed!

Nor did the ref.

Unfortunate result last night. I hope we beat Stevenage as I suspect Exeter will be a tougher proposition than some of us think.

chromeyellow said:

that's a really repulsive comparison. How like you to come up with it

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You are right, and I’ve now removed.